Inflation

Any chance there is development going on to replace the standard vynil inflation/deflation nipples? Never had an OR one delam, but have had plenty tear or crack once you get a season or two in. The inflation nipple was an industry standard and really was just an easy part to source, but more and more complanies are evolving away from it. Cant imagine it would take too long to figure out a better set up. The single valve with membrane one way valve that Liquid Force has is a pretty decent system. I can easily imagine that within the next couple of seasons the old inflation nipples will be gone from most of the premier brands on the market and will end up being percieved as a marker of less than premium quality. Kinda like velcro CL releases. They work fine, but are pretty badly regarded in comparison to all the new fan dangled releases out there.

We have looked at all the options currently available and don’t like them as they all require a specialized nozzle head to work - making friend’s pumps useless if you forget yours and the wind is blowing hard. What we have been looking at is a specialized nozzle head for the pump which allows the pump nozzle to go over the inflate valve head, meaning you can use the full diameter of the internal valve head to inflate with less resistance and meaning in a pinch you can still slide a conventional nozzle head into the valve head.

I personally think this is the best route to go but you never know, we may decide to go 100% unique, I just hate the idea of having a great day ruined or delayed for lack of a specialized nozzle head.

Would love easier inflation, but can live with what we have. Its the fragility of the vynil nipple that bugs me most. When a pump is bending the nozzle over repeatedly they eventually crack. Either that or the deflate valve top eventually rips, or worse, something cracks when its cold.

I just figure its time to evolve away from the pool toy parts.

I can see the hesitation to move to a proprietary pump nozzle. But not enough to stop progress. If your worried about it go one step farther than the other guys and include a few cheap hose nozzles with each kite. That way people can throw one in their kite bag so they can use it with a budy’s pump in a pinch.

I have been using a two stage (low to high pressure change) electric pump for several years now. It will not inflate at low pressure, it will change to high pressure because of too much resistance in the standard valve. I have overcome this by making a special tip that extends past the one way flap and holds it open to lower resistance. The pump will inflate under low pressure until more pressure is needed. This resistance occurs when you are manually pumping a kite, which results in more effort and slower inflation time. A better valve could reduce or even eliminate this and allow easier and quicker inflating! Most inflatable boats have a large two part valve that allows high volume low pressure inflation very quickly. This valve also is used for deflation thus eliminating the need for two valves. A simple adapter could be supplied to allow a conventional hose tip to inflate the kite if needed when you forget your pump. Of course the next discussion should be a better manual pump that is also two stage for easier low pressure high volume pumping and then switch to high pressure low volume pumping. These are what are used in the infatable boat world, there is one in my basement! So let’s keep moving forward OR, some in the industry are already going down this road, don’t be left behind! We love our OR kites and don’t want temptations from “those other guys”!!

We have looked at all the options currently available and don’t like them as they all require a specialized nozzle head to work - making friend’s pumps useless if you forget yours and the wind is blowing hard. .

My GF’s LF Envys have the huge inflation valve which fills the kite in no time. You can use a standard pump on it as well as there is a normal nipple available as well. Never bothered using the normal nipple as the big valve is so amazingly fast to pump up kite and when you want to dump air it’s also way faster than the deflate on my Rises.

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Stupid idea but there might be some mileage in it.
Why not have both??
At the moment we have a “standard” valve and a big deflate valve. Is there some way that the defalte valve can be changed such that it can be used as a big inflate and deflate valve?

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Stupid idea but there might be some mileage in it.
Why not have both??
At the moment we have a “standard” valve and a big deflate valve. Is there some way that the defalte valve can be changed such that it can be used as a big inflate and deflate valve?

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i don’t know the envy’s but what I fogot to mention was that the big valve fo boith inflation and deflation as well as having the current “standard” valve as well.

No idea how it would work but food for thought perhaps?

In the image above the pump is connected to the big inflate/deflate valve. If you look to the left there is a standard inflate valve available for a standard pump. We never use it, but if we had to it wouldn’t be an issue to use any pump someone lent us on the beach.

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Why have two valves when you could accomplish the same thing with one large two piece valve that would allow the standard hose end ( not the tip) to fit onto the large valve port. Similar to what you see in the above picture. This way any standard pump hose would fit the valve with the tapered tip removed. You would get no resistance with the large opening.

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Why have two valves when you could accomplish the same thing with one large two piece valve that would allow the standard hose end ( not the tip) to fit onto the large valve port. Similar to what you see in the above picture. This way any standard pump hose would fit the valve with the tapered tip removed. You would get no resistance with the large opening.